Bird

by Angela Johnson
Hennepin County Library audioCD 2 hours
read by Chantale Hosein (Bird), Kamahl Palmer (Ethan), & Matthew Pavich (Jay)

Bird has run to Acorn, Alabama, to find her stepfather Cecil and bring him back home. But as she stays hidden on Ethan's family's farm, she starts to realize that she misses her mother and having a safe home. Ethan is entranced by Bird, but has spent so much of his life sick and in hospitals that he almost doesn't know how to connect to someone new. Jay misses his brother Derrick, who died of a brain aneurysm. He too is drawn to Bird, especially with his best friend Googie in juvenile lock-up.

This is a very short story that seems to end too quickly. Bird's situation seemed too unresolved. She went all that way from Ohio and spent all those months hiding and watching, but then she never actually confronted Cecil.